


Prompt: General Hospital

by respoftw



Series: Comfortween 2020 [19]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Character Study, M/M, No Dialogue, pre slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:27:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27106462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/respoftw/pseuds/respoftw
Summary: Waiting room vigils
Relationships: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Series: Comfortween 2020 [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947178
Comments: 10
Kudos: 65





	Prompt: General Hospital

**Author's Note:**

> I saw a list of prompts for “Comfortween” [on dreamwidth](https://hurtcomfortex.dreamwidth.org/22946.html)
> 
> 19\. General Hospital  
> Hospitalization, surgery, waiting room vigils, field medicine, medical procedures. 
> 
> Although, yeah, this isn’t very comfort focused, my muse turned all introspective tonight...

Atlantis didn’t have a waiting room.Almost as if the Ancients who lived there before them didn’t relate to each other in a way that required one.Maybe they didn’t.With all of the things they’ve learned about the Ancients over the year, Rodney wouldn’t be surprised.

Carson had converted some of the nearby corridors into a waiting area during their first month.

It maybe said something about the way Rodney related to other people that he never thought he’d use it.

Atlantis had changed him.

He cared about people now.Cared enough to sit in uncomfortable chairs for hours on end with mud drying hard on his clothes and blood drying into streaks of brown against his skin.

People cared enough about him to do the same and that fact will never quite stop amazing him.

He’s lost count of the number of times he’s sat there.Waiting.

Rodney’s never been good at waiting but the first few times after he asked someone to bring him a tablet to keep himself busy he realised that he hadn’t been able to do anything with it other than try and beat Radek’s high score at FreeCell.

If John’s waiting with him they play Prime/Not Prime but, honestly, John is very rarely there.It’s usually John that Rodney’s waiting for.Wondering if this time is it, if his luck has run out.

Teyla and Ronon have taught him some of their own games and they’ve made up even more together.The rules are incomprehensible to anyone but the three of them.No one ever asks to join in.

There’s something about being on a team that pulls at you.It takes pieces out of you and settles those pieces in the rest of your team. 

Rodney’s not sure he likes it but he knows he can’t live without it anymore.

The mud that has dried on his trousers cracks and flakes to the waiting room floor as he stands.

It’s gotten so he knows whether the news is good or bad from the set of Carson’s shoulders as he walks towards them.

Lucky bastard.He beat the odds again.

Rodney knows, deep down in his soul, knows, that this waiting room is likely to be the place he gets the worst news he will ever get in his entire life.

But not today.

**Author's Note:**

> I may be failing at focusing all of these on comfort. I did intend to do a very comfort heavy fic tonight but this one took a turn.
> 
> Tomorrow’s will be chock full of comfort! Or I’ll die trying!


End file.
